Crono's Story
Chapter 3
Cris
A sort of unreality, a kind of
unbelieving had washed over me as I'd witnessed the battle between my unknown
protectorate and the transformed Triono, almost like I was watching it from
someone else's point of view. I'd never
seen such power or speed in a single entity before, but this bald headed man
possessed skill far beyond my range, or even Triono's. Never, in all my time, had I ever even
thought that only a few punches would leave Triono badly injured and barely
hanging onto life. Even one of my fully
powered Kamehameha's wouldn't have put a dent in Triono while he was
transformed like that.
I gazed warily at my defender, who
was holding over the naked and used up body of Triono, looking over it like a
mother protecting its young. Pain had
numbed my left shoulder and arm, and I clasped them with my right arm in a
futile attempt to relieve the agony that had placed itself in them. The bald fighter had landed back on the
ground, and was kneeling over Triono, getting his pulse.
I slowly stepped forward, towards
the pair, and came up from behind them. Right before I reached them, the conscious man turned his head and
looked at me. "How are you?" He asked. I didn't reply; I was still in awe of the
way he'd dispatched the transformed Triono. When I didn't respond, he stood, turned and questioned me again. "Well, you ok?"
His voice, somewhat high pitched,
set me off even more. I looked at him
through squinting eyes, summing him up as well as I could, before finally I
replied, "I'll be ok, I just need to get to a hospital."
"Don't have time for that." He
flatly stated. I was quietly surprised
by his remark, but before I could question him about it, a wave of pain
callously whipped over my entire body. I'd run out of energy, completely, I didn't even have the power to
stand, and I would've collapsed to the ground if not for the bald man grabbing
my injured arm as I was falling. I
screamed out as ripples of pain shot from my shoulder, dulling my mind; his
hand was like a vice-grip.
"Oh shit, sorry." He said, and quickly moved his hand to under
my other arm, supporting me in a less painful fashion. "Let's see just what the problem is." He then took his free hand and passed it
slowly over my injured arm, from shoulder to wrist, and I felt a sort tingling
sensation throughout the arm, drying the pain slightly.
When he finished with whatever he
was doing, he released my body to its own reconnaissance, and the tingling
disappeared. The pain returned, but it
was far less antagonistic, to the point where I could think again. "Broken forearm, bone chips in elbow, and
dislocated shoulder." He said, speaking like a doctor reading a chart. He then continued, conversing in a
sympathetic tone, "This could hurt a little."
He then grabbed my forearm and,
without a second thought, shoved the fragmented broken bone back to the main
one. The pain that he'd only recently
help recede came back with a vengeance, and I screamed in ache and pain. But it would only get worse, as he then
moved up to my elbow, and with a single hand, crushed the joint inwards. I clamped a fist with my right hand and was
dearly tempted to swing it at this man, but then I remembered Triono's beating,
and thought better of it.
After what seemed like an eternity
of crushing bone fragments in my elbow, he moved up to my shoulder, and, using
both hands, crammed my arm back into it's socket. When he finished he let go of me and I fell to the ground in a
heap of pain.
My new MD then proceeded to drop a
small green bean in front of me as I writhed in agony on the ground. "Eat that. It'll help, I promise." He said. My adopted momma didn't raise any fool though; I didn't take food from a
stranger, at least not without one question being answered first.
"What is it?" I asked as I stared up
at him.
He looked at me with a sort of dazed
look on his face. "They call it a senzu
bean, it'll give you your strength back and speed up the recovery process quite
a bit."
I picked up the small bean, felt its
smooth, hard surface, and then popped it in my mouth. It was much harder than expected, like a small candy, but I'd
chewed and swallowed it in a few seconds. At first nothing happened; the pain remained in my arm, and I still felt
weak as a puppy, but then there was a huge rush of energy, like I'd just gotten
my third wind. My muscles regained
their strength, my arm stopped throbbing with pain, and I could feel my ki
power slowly regenerating. I hopped to
my feet, eyes wide open, and asked him, "What are in those things?"
"Don't know." He replied, then shrugged and grinned
slightly, "I don't grow them, just eat them."
"Right." I nodded and looked down at
my doctor. He was even shorter up
close. At 5'11" I wasn't taller than
most, but compared to this 5 foot even man, I was a giant. He didn't seem to mind or even care; I was
sure he was used to being the short one. He was still focusing on Triono, shaking his head and mumbling to
himself. "What happened to him, how did
he transform like that?" I asked.
"He's a saiyan," he muttered
underneath his breath, "they all have the ability to transform, as long as they
have a tail." The word "saiyan" stabbed
into my mind like a splinter. The man
had used it as if instead of "human", Triono was a "saiyan". Triono was different, I knew that, but how could
this guy claim that he wasn't even human?
"What's a saiyan?" I questioned, "Plus who are you anyways?"
He turned to face me, and stuck out
his short, stubby arm. "Name's Krillin,
glad to meet you." I shook his hand
tentatively, and then introduced myself.
"I'm Cris. And
he," I said, looking down at my lifeless opponent, "is Triono."
He nodded again, and then looked
back to Triono. I wish he paid me a bit
more attention, but he'd healed me, what more could I ask for? Still, I needed to know what I was dealing with;
about the "saiyan" title he'd given Triono. I was about to ask again when he cut me off with the answer. "You asked what saiyans were?" He asked rhetorically "They're a race. A race of warriors, unparalleled by most
species of the universe, they strike fear into their enemies. They used to act as sort of planet brokers,
clearing all sentient life off a planet to allow it to be used by their
clients. They are all born with tails
like Tri-ono," He sounded out the name. "Whenever there is a full moon, if they
have a tail, they can look into the moon and they will transform into a beast
like the one that attacked you." I
tried to take this all in, but most of it was just bouncing off me, all I cared
to hear was Triono was an alien. All
the time I'd known him, he seemed completely normal (well, as normal as people like
he and I could be), but now it made sense. He never seemed to care much about talking, or any kind of social
interaction, just fighting; even fighting for nothing, which was the basis for
most of our fights. Krillin continued,
but I didn't really pay much attention, I just stared at the motionless body of
Triono, wondering why I'd never seen it earlier. "Triono must not have trained a whole lot, if he had, you
wouldn't have stood a chance." I nodded
absent-mindedly, and was about to explain to Krillin about Triono's unusual
training methods, when the baldy said something that caught my ear. "Thing is, there've never been any saiyans
in this dimension."
I wasn't sure I heard him right so I shot him a
strange look and asked, "This dimension?"
He nodded and then tried to
explain. "This dimension, the one we're
in right now, is one of many. I come
from a totally different dimension, where powers like yours, mine, and Triono's
are fairly common. I'm surprised to
find powers as strong as yours in this dimension, I've been here five weeks,
and not in all the galaxy have I sensed powers as strong as the two of yours." He paused, and then took a look around the
street, like he was looking at it for the first time. "And I'm also amazed at how similar your planet is to the Earth
from my dimension."
He'd lost me again, "Hold on a
minute. You mean to tell me that there
are other dimensions similar to this one?" Science never was my strongest suit.
"Some are parallel, like yours and
mine. They're nearly exactly the same, except
something happened in this dimension," He said as he stared into the moon and
stars, "that changed it dramatically from mine. In my dimension there are literally millions of different
sentient species, but here, it's limited to only a few hundred. Something must have wiped the early stages of
them out, or something."
He breathed deeply, and a moan came
from Triono, beneath us. "He might wake
up pretty soon." I stated.
"Yup, we better get a move on." With one hand he picked up Triono's body and
slung it between his arm and torso. "If
you want to come with me, I'll explain what I'm doing in your dimension, and
you can decide if you want to come with me." He stuck out his free hand, palm outstretched
I considered telling him no, just
thanking him for the rescue and the healing, so I could catch a train back to
Canada and see Seana for the first time in two months. I'd already been separated from her for too
long, but something inside of me told me to just take his hand, and hope for
the best.
After a few seconds I took a deep
breath and then latched onto his arm. He smiled slightly, and then suddenly we were off. I'd flown before, but only in planes and
helicopters, this was totally new. No
engine, just his own power, his own ki, which was increasing with each second. My breath was gone in a few seconds, by that
time we were at least five clicks above ground, and the apartments were
suddenly small dots in the distance. A
rush of adrenaline pulsed through me; I dug into his arm with my nails, and
looked up at him. He turned to me and
smiled. "Never flown before?"
"Not like this!" I replied. My heart
felt like it was going to bust out of my chest, and to calm myself, I closed my
eyes and practised a relaxation technique I'd learnt as a kid. Trying to take long, deep breaths, I
gradually pushed down the anxiety building inside me. The air rushed by us so fast it roared in my ears and helped
quiet my mind. I opened my eyes again,
and then looked to Krillin.
He was concentrated on, steering I
guess is the best way to say it. I
didn't want to interrupt him, so I tried to catch a glimpse of Triono, across
Krillin's body. He was still knocked
out, his black hair covering his face, pushed by the wind. Millions of thoughts passed through my mind
about Triono. Who were his
parents? Why was he on earth if he was
an alien? What was his life like? All of these thoughts, and many, far more
dangerous ones whizzed through my head, and I suddenly felt both sorrow and
pity for my enemy. I suddenly wished I'd
known him a bit better, but I had a feeling we'd be getting to know each other
very soon.
Suddenly Krillin's voice startled
me. "So, what do you want to know?" He wondered.
I didn't know where to start, but
since I had been thinking about Triono, I said "Tell me about saiyans."
He shrugged and then said, "Well, I
don't know a whole lot, just what I've picked up from my friends, and some
books. You can read up on them if you
come over." I didn't understand what he
meant, but before I could ask him he said, "I guess I could give you an outline
though. First off, their home planet was called Vegeta. It was a huge planet, almost three times as
big as Earth, and it also had gravity ten times that of Earth's. There were originally two races on this
planet, the saiyans and the Tsufuru. Eventually
a war broke out between the two races. The war was going evenly, what with the saiyans brute strength and the
Tsufuru's technology, until one night, there was a full moon on Vegeta. And as you now know, when a saiyan looks into
the full moon it transforms into a huge ape. The other race was over-run and the saiyans took over. They were stuck on Vegeta though, which was
now damaged badly by the war, and in order to get technology and money, they
struck an alliance with another race on a far off planet. This alliance called for the saiyans to take
over planets that were suitable for habitation or farms, and then give them to
their new allies.
"This mutually benefited both
species, so the saiyans began taking other clients, garnering wide masses of
riches and power from their clients. Eventually one client, an evil being named Freeza, monopolized the
saiyans, and used them for his own personal wishes. Soon though, Freeza saw that the saiyans, and their ever growing
numbers and strength, might pose a problem to his personal power, so he
destroyed the planet Vegeta and with it almost all of the saiyans." I gasped
when I heard this. The thought of a
single being able to destroy an entire planet and its inhabitants astounded me;
this Freeza must've had power beyond my comprehension. "Only seven saiyans were off the planet when
it was destroyed. I guess eight though
if you count Triono. And that was 200
years ago."
I absorbed all this data rather
quickly, the history of Triono's people. "Eventually though, Freeza met his match. A saiyan, named Goku, who was also my best friend, defeated the
murderer by turning into a Super Saiyan. In this form, Freeza was no match for Goku, and eventually he was
defeated. That basically sums up the
history of the saiyan race. No one has
ever heard of a saiyan since the last of the race died. Triono might change everything, a saiyan
that may very well be able to bring back the species. And if he's a full-blooded saiyan, it's even better.
"Anything else?" He asked as he continued looking
onward. I began thinking, and looked
around for some ideas. We were far out of the city now, in-fact when I looked
back, I couldn't even see the lights from it, we must have been going at
extremely high speeds. I remained
silent for a while, searching for a question, when one popped in my head.
"Why are you here in this dimension
at all?"
"Simply put, I came here to find
people just like you. You see Cris,
there's a war coming. And it doesn't
involve you or Triono, or even your galaxy at all, but it will if my dimension
loses this war. I've come to your
dimension to bring new warriors back to my plane. All the greatest warriors of my time, the Z warriors we called
them, have died of old age. Vegeta,
Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks, Goten, the list goes on and on, I'm the only remaining
Z warrior left, and soon I will have to pass on too. We were the protectors of our dimension; our universe relied on
us to keep it free of evil. Without us
to keep the peace in the universe, evil has risen again, and there are no
fighters powerful enough to destroy the evil army heading towards Earth. In just a few years, they will arrive on
Earth, the breeding ground of the most powerful combatants in the universe. And if no one stops them, they will have
complete domination over all life in the universe. I was sent here by chance really, I was on my way to a planet
called Namek, as I'd heard of a great fighter from there, when I hit some sort
of rift in space and time. Don't ask me
how, but I was sent here, to your dimension. So I did the job I was supposed to, find fighters with potential to be
the next Z warriors. My search led me
to Earth, where I found you and Triono."
Great, so Krillin was some scout
from the major leagues coming down to my level to seek out new talent. "You said something about the upcoming war
affecting my dimension. What do you
mean?"
"We're pretty sure this army has a
device that will allow them access to any dimension that is relatively similar
to ours, and that means yours. The
problem they have is that their machine requires power of more than a thousand class-A
stars combined. They have no way to
harness this power, except if they wish for it with the dragon balls."
"What are dragon balls?" I asked. I felt like a stupid little kid who was
learning his multiplication tables.
"Ah, the dragon balls, really the
source of all our problems on earth. The dragon balls are a creation of our Kami, or god. They allow anyone who has all seven balls to
make any wish they want, and it will come true. There are limits to the dragon balls power, but the harnessing of
the power needed to work their machine could be wished for. So we can't let them get all seven dragon
balls, if they do, it would mean domination of every type of life everywhere, and
that would not be limited to my dimension either."
I swallowed heavily, if I got the
message right, Krillin would want me to come with him to his dimension, and
fight this evil army. I wasn't afraid
of any fight, especially not if it was for all the right reasons, but I had to
know one thing. "Are these guys as
powerful as Freeza?"
He looked at me solemnly and then
almost whispered, "Freeza's a pip-squeak compared to these guys." He saw the look of fear on my face, but
instead of letting me voice my concerns he said, "We're here, my space pod's
right down there."
I couldn't see anything now, the
night was dark, and clouds had covered the moon where we were. Suddenly we dove, headfirst at suicidal
speeds towards a farmer's field. All my
blood rushed to my feet, and I almost passed out, but right before we hit the
ground, we slowed to a calm glide before touching down on the green grass.
It felt good to be on land again,
but I was disoriented and almost fell to the ground. Krillin looked at me funny and said, "We'll teach you how to fly
like that if you come with me." I
didn't know whom he meant by 'we' but the thought of moving that fast sent a
thrill up my spine.
"If I go with you, when would I be
able to come back?" I asked, the whole
time the thought of moving at such amazing speeds held control over my mind.
"They'll arrive in three years,
after it's all over, this dimension could use a god-like figure."
I looked at Triono, and wondered,
"What about Triono?"
"He doesn't belong here anyways, he
must've somehow arrived in your dimension from ours, maybe in the same way I
did."
I pondered the thought of going with
him, the chance of a lifetime; go to save the universe from pure evil. I didn't know how I'd explain this to Seana;
I'd have to talk to her, somehow. Let
her know what was happening. "Could I
go see someone, before we leave?"
"Sorry Cris, the dimensional warp,
or whatever it is I came through, is disappearing as we speak. We might not even make it as it is, so we
have to go now."
I didn't know if I could just leave
her like that, but I'd be fighting for her, for everyone on my planet, for my
universe itself. A kind of pride arose
in my heart, but it was like no other I'd ever felt before. I stood there for maybe a minute, Krillin
shifting impatiently from side to side, before I finally made up my mind. "Let's do it."